Originally Posted by
LowValueCustomer
Loyalty programs should be designed on the premise that consumers on balance skew rational and should be designed to offer aspirational experiences which would otherwise be unattainable to incentivize loyalty.
Agree completely in your premise that programs are shifting away from this model. My initial years of travel were with DL, but I was loyal to reach the prescribed goals for aspirational travel. I essentially only redeemed for RTW trips in J and it was a truly great value. I did my last DL RTW in 2014 (just before they discontinued the program) and in fact decided to move over to AA to take advantage of the OWE awards. I signed up for an EXP challenge sometime in 2014, which of course was the year AA abruptly discontinued the OWE awards.
Originally Posted by
Catbert10
I seriously miss upgrade priority based on time of upgrade request with connecting pax having priority over originating pax. As a network consultant who knew my schedule weeks/months in advance I'd fly 50 weeks a year, 4 flights a week, with a 99% upgrade rate
This was the change that made me wake from my airline loyalty trance. After this change, I started booking whoever could get me where I needed to be the fastest. Allegiant/Frontier/Spirit included. Unless you are a hub captive or in a city with single airline service, it is extremely unlikely that any 1 airline can get you where you need to be in the least amount of time, every time. In many, many cases your brand loyalty is coming at the cost of significant amounts of time. The hours that I have saved in transit over the last few years are all the award currency I need!